No king? No Queen?

Exactly 125 years ago the National Museum in Zurich was officially opened and exactly 25 years ago I made a tour there for a tour group from London. The first question our guests asked was: «Who was the former Swiss king of this castle?» “No King?” “No Queen?” After initial disappointment, the British were soon captivated by the wonderful exhibits they saw.

The museum has since blossomed. Behind the walls was rumbled, hammered, nailed, rebuilt, supplemented, expanded and reorganized. Many objects are now in other rooms, many have been moved to the Affoltern Collection Center. Join us on a short tour like 25 years ago:

The entrance to the museum is the portal next to the Gotthard stagecoach, decorated with rich Gothic tracery, dating from 1849. Employees record the start and end of their work on a time recording device, and supervisors and tours are noted in the portal box by the security service.

Entrance is free. Coats, bags and umbrellas can be handed in at the guarded museum cloakroom. Each visitor is registered with a hand counter.

The “Sacred Art” leads directly to room 3. This is where St. Peter’s “Bell of the Citizens” hangs. From 1294 to 1880, she hung with her five sisters in the belfry of St. Peter’s Church in Zurich.

It was probably cast in the immediate vicinity of the parish church because of its weight. In the evening at 8:30 pm you could hear their dull tone. And anyone who was still drinking a cup in the Zunftstube after 9 p.m. or trying to find their way home without light was fined. By the way: a good bell should reverberate for more than two minutes.

The two-minute ringing of the bell guides us down to a 19th-century mill. The miller’s reputation was not good for a long time. It was said that next to each mill there was a mound of sand with which the corn would be stretched.

On the first floor, Regula Rollenbutz (1545-1607), the 38-year-old wife of the governor Salomon Hirzel, appears as “Syn Ehelich Husfrow”. The white cap with veil characterizes her as a married woman. She is wearing a high-necked brown dress, black jacket, black apron. Silver cutlery (knife, sharpening steel) hangs from a cord on the belt. The carnation in the hand indicates pregnancy.

Passing through the historic rooms, we come to the Hirzel room with its two beautiful tiled stoves, built in 1698. Here the group cannot miss the painting of the Bodmer family from 1643.

Conrad Bodmer sits at the end of the lunch table with his second wife, Anna Barbara Gossweiler. They say mercy on the children they brought into marriage.

But let’s look at the arrangement: six boys sit to the right of their father, six girls to the left of their mother. Logically! «The man is order, light, sky – the good right side. – The woman is dark. The chaos, the earth – the impure left side.”

The armory, with an area of ​​51 by 18 meters and a height of 16 meters, was the heart of the museum at the time and bears witness to the honor and fame of the nation. As an adult you step into it with mixed feelings. It reminds you too much of the often very boring and sometimes boring history lessons of your own school days.

The main attraction of the hall is without a doubt Ferdinand Hodler’s fresco The Retreat at Marignano on the west wall. The heroic scale of Swiss defeat is transformed into moral victory. The four mighty pictures and the exhibits presented make up for the unheated room – at least in the cold season.

And when you leave us, don’t forget to bring your coat, bag and umbrella!